Accidents Happen
by poeticgrace
Summary: When tragedy strikes for Jackie, Eric is there to help her pick up the pieces.
1. Chapter 1

It's crazy to think that he lost his life. It was an accident, a senseless and tragic act that stemmed from a moment of not thinking and culminated in death. They had no way of knowing that this was how it would end up. Honestly, it wasn't supposed to go like this. But Hyde was gone and Jackie was left with their newborn child and Eric knew that he had to step up.

It had been a long time since he had been around either of them all that much. After that New Year when the 70s had given way to the 80s, Eric had disappeared toward the East Coast to take a teaching job in Connecticut. Six years later, he was back in Point Place attending his former best friend's funeral. His parents weren't taking the news well but had stepped up to take care of Jackie and the baby.

Eliza Grace Hyde was this tiny breath of a thing, with dark curls and her father's eyes and this smile that was enough to break your heart. Jackie had spent all her hours since Hyde's death rocking in a chair, staring out the window, as if she was waiting for him to come home. The only people allowed near the baby were Red and Kitty. Even her own parents had been kept at a distance. She was set on protecting the only connection she had left to her husband. It was only when Eric showed up that she even let anyone else in the house.

"It's nice of you to finally show up," she told him bitterly when he finally darkened her doorstep a week after Hyde's funeral. She didn't even bother looking up from the copy Rolling Stone that had come in the mail in her husband's name the night before. "Your mom is in the nursery with Eliza. Your dad ran to the store to pick up some essentials."

Eric sat down cautiously on the edge of the sofa across from her. Her hair was unkempt and her shirt was wrinkled - an alarming sight for the usually immaculate Jackie. He wanted to reach out and smooth down her wayward curls but knew his touch wouldn't be welcomed. It just felt wrong to see her like this.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here," he said softly. He hadn't wanted to come. As long as he didn't come home, he could pretend that his best friend was still alive and that his goddaughter wouldn't have to grow up without knowing her father. "I know that I should have come sooner. There isn't an excuse I could give that would make this okay." Only his father's harsh words had brought him back here in the first place. "I just didn't want to deal with it. I didn't want it to be real."

"And you think I did?" Her words are soft but accusatory. "God, Eric, I wish more than anything that it wasn't real. You have no idea how much I wish that. But that's the funny thing about life, it doesn't really bother asking what you want." She looked down at her hands, trying to keep the tears from falling. "I just wish you had come earlier. I could have really used you here. You're the only one who understands..."

Jackie trailed off as she buried her face in her hands. Eric moved immediately from the couch to kneel at her side, carefully wrapping her in his embrace so that he could hold her. Somewhere between hating each other in high school and that one conversation on the phone before he left for Africa and when she gave birth to Eliza, Eric had come to value Jackie as a friend. "I miss him, too," he whispered softly, stroking her hair. He could hear his father's car in the driveway but didn't make a move to pull away. "I am so sorry that I wasn't here, Jackie. I promise I am not going to go anywhere again."

She nodded but didn't let go as Red came into the room. "Oh, great, I just got her smiling again. What did you do to her, Dumbass?" Red asked harshly before depositing the brown paper bag on the counter. He came over to Jackie immediately, pushing his son aside so that he could hug the tiny brunette. "Are you okay, honey? You just let me know if my boot needs to go anywhere near Eric's ass."

Jackie giggled and hugged her surrogate father back. Red had been amazing to her and Eliza since Steven died. "I'm fine, Red, thank you. Actually, your son was just apologizing for being stupid. Something tells me you're the reason he's here, so I should be thanking you," she told him before kissing him on the cheek. "I appreciate you sending for him. Eliza could use her godfather right about now."

Red blushed at her praise. "Alright, alright, enough of this nostalgic crap. Eric, there are more groceries in the car. Go get them and then greet your mother," he ordered his son. "I am going to go upstairs and see that gorgeous baby of yours. She hasn't had any Grandpa Red time all day. You just relax here, Jackie. I'll take care of everything."

She smiled at him appreciatively and waited for him to disappear upstairs before turning back to Eric. His eyes were wide as he looked between her and the stairs.. "Grandpa Red?" he repeated. "What the hell, Jackie?"

"Your parents are afraid Eliza is the only grandchild they are ever going to have and since they were basically Steven's parents and might as well be mine, they have adopted her as an honorary Foreman," she explained. "I don't know what I would have done without them. They're the only people who bothered to stick around after the funeral. Everyone else went back to their lives. Eliza and I are stuck here. We're alone now. I guess I have to start getting used to that."

Eric just patted her shoulder once and headed outside to get the groceries. As he climbed out of his father's new car with an armful of brown paper bags, he couldn't help but look back at the two-story house Hyde had left behind. He had built a successful presence in the local music scene with a trio of Grooves stores when he had bought the quaint Victorian house just a few blocks from the Foreman house. Jackie and he did a little bit of restoration work before moving last year. She found out she was pregnant after they had been there a few months. Eliza was just a month old now and had been shy of two weeks when he was killed in the car accident.

"Honey!" Eric looked up to see his mother leaning out a window upstairs. She looked tired but happy. "Why didn't you come see Eliza? Hurry up and carry those bags in. There is someone waiting to see her godfather!" 


	2. Chapter 2

Within a few days, Eric had settled into the Hyde household, sending his parents home for some much-needed rest. It's his fifth day at the house when Jackie lets him feed Eliza and put her down for a nap so that she can run to the hairdresser for a much-needed haircut. She returned an hour later with Fez in tow, the two of them happily gossiping. Eric sensed that it's the happiest that she's been in awhile so he doesn't complain when the subject turns to Donna. Jackie must have sensed his discomfort because she quickly changed the topic to Kelso.

"They're supposed to be coming back from Chicago next week," she explained to Eric when Fez mentioned something about getting the gang together. "It's Betsy's birthday. I had promised that I would take her shopping before, you know...Anyhow, it'll be fun to have Brooke here. We could go get our nails done or something while you boys hang out with the girls."

"Hey, Fez needs his manicure," the foreigner spoke up.

"Of course you can come," Jackie laughed. "You're obviously one of the girls." She started to get a beer from the fridge but stopped short when Eliza started to wail from upstairs. "Well, I guess duty calls."

Once the petite brunette was out of earshot, Fez turned to Eric with a serious look in his eyes. "I haven't seen her this happy for awhile. It's good that you're here. It seems to be helping already," he complimented Eric. "No one has really been able to get through to her other than your parents."

"Not even Donna?" Eric asked. He broached the subject lightly. It had been awhile since he had let himself think about the redhead-turned-blonde next door. "Donna is her best friend."

Fez looked at his friend forlornly, shaking his head as if to say just how much Eric had missed since he left Wisconsin. "Jackie and Donna don't really speak much. Donna kind of forgot about Jackie once she moved to Madison to host that radio program," he revealed. "They had some big falling out about a year ago, but no one really knows what it was about. I tried to talk to Hyde about it once, but he was pretty tight lipped. I hadn't even seen Donna until the funeral."

Eric made a mental note to return to the subject later with Jackie but allowed it to drop for now when she returned with Eliza in her arms. The soft little bundle of joy was wrapped in a pink blanket that Eric recognized as one his other had used for him when he was small, despite the fact that he was very much a boy. "Hey, that was mine," he whispered as he reached up and stroked the material. Jackie smiled and nodded knowingly. "I'm glad that she has it."

"Eliza loves it, actually. I couldn't get her to fall asleep a few nights ago when your mom showed up. She said it used to work like magic with you. As soon as we swaddled her up, she fell right asleep," she replied. "I don't know if it's because it's soft or if it's because yours."

Fez noticed the intimacy of the exchange. It was nice to see Jackie comfortable around someone. It hasn't been that long since Hyde died, but it had been awhile before that since Jackie was happy. No one other than him knew the truth of why she wasn't talking to Donna. He almost felt bad for lying to Eric, but he had promised to keep her secret. If Jackie wanted to tell him that her former best friend had slept with her now-dead husband, that was going to be on her. Fez was content to keep it to himself so that everyone else could honor his memory.

Jackie had worked a long time to forgive Hyde or at least pretend that she had. She had confided that she didn't feel she had much choice when she ended up pregnant. He had vowed to support her however she needed, but Jackie had been adamant that they would give Eliza the family and the stability that Jackie and Hyde had never really had. He knew that she would never admit it out loud but he had briefly wondered if she was the tiniest bit relieved not to have Hyde around. Fez knew that she was grieving and that she missed her husband. He also knew that she still wasn't over the betrayal or the toll it had taken on their marriage. Maybe his death, in some small, strange way, had taken a little bit of the pressure of her shoulders.

"I was thinking spaghetti for dinner," Jackie declared, breaking Fez out of his deep thought. Eric had Eliza now and was sitting across the table from the foreigner, happily feeding the little girl her after-nap bottle while planning the evening's menu with Jackie. It was so domestic that Fez almost felt like they were a family. "What do you say, Fez? Wanna join us for some Italian?"

"I am supposed to help close up the solon tonight," he told her regretfully. "I will come by later this week and make you some of my trademark pie! We can have a dessert and movie night."

The three of them shared a laugh and made plans for Friday evening when the Kelso family would be there to visit. A few minutes later, Fez kissed both of the Hyde girls and headed back to work, leaving Eric alone with the widow and her baby. "Here, let me do that," he insisted once Eliza was finished eating. He handed Jackie the baby and went to work boiling water and cooking the meatballs. She watched him with a certain fondness. "So what else we have this week?"

"I actually have to meet with the lawyer," she announced. "WB has some deals that were set up in Steven's name, so I guess there is some legal business to get through. Your mom is going to keep the baby so that Red can go with me. I was hoping that you'd tag along, too. I haven't seen WB since the funeral. He wasn't exactly friendly either..."

"Wait, why?" Eric asked, clearly confused. He couldn't imagine why Hyde's father would have a problem with Jackie. "What happened?"

"Just things," she said mystically. "You don't have to come if you don't want." He could tell she was trying to brush it off now. "Red will be there. I think he's looking forward to yelling at someone because Kitty hasn't let him yell at anyone around me since that night."

"Why that night?" There was that look again. "C'mon, spill it. You know that you aren't that good at keeping secrets, and even if I can't get it out of you, I still have my mom and Fez."

Jackie grimaced at him and turned away. She didn't like to be strong-armed into revealing the intimate details of her life. She hadn't talked about this in so long, and other than the parties involved, Fez and Red, no one really knew what happened. "Eric, please, don't push me. It's a private matter that I'd rather not get into it."

Eric sat down the mixing spoon on the counter and turned to her. "Jackie, if I am going to help out, you're going to have to let me in a little bit and trust me."

"Why should I?" she asked angrily. "Because you've been such a good friend to me? Tell me this, Eric. Where have you been this past year? Do you have any idea how much you missed? You weren't even here when Eliza was born, and Steven asked you to be her godfather."

"I told you earlier and I'll say it as many times as you want to hear it. There are no good excuses, Jackie. I messed up. I wasn't around. I've been a crappy friend, but I'm here now. I'm trying to make up for what I did wrong. I don't know what else I can do if you're not going to let me in."

"There's just so much you don't know, Eric."

"Then tell me."

And so, once Eliza had been put in a bassinet in the corner of the kitchen so that she could nap, Jackie did. She told him how she caught her best friend sleeping with her husband on a long weekend when she went to Chicago to visit Brooke and Michael. She told him how she had wanted a divorce but how it was Steven that pressed for them to work it out. She told him about the long hours in counseling and how Donna had tried to apologize and how she knew she was never going to be able to really forgive either of them. She told him how her daughter was conceived one night when she had too many glasses of wine in a vain attempt to numb the pain of having to endure an evening alone with her own husband and the guilt that she felt over the whole thing. Most of all, she told him how she felt bad that she felt a little bit of relief that Steven was gone because now she didn't have to pretend to be over it. She could finally figure out what it meant to be Jackie again.

And when she was done, Eric had no words. There was nothing to say. He could only wipe away her tears with the pad of his thumb, tuck her hair behind her ear and whisper, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Don't feel bad for me. I don't most of the time. Just say that you will come with me to meet the lawyer so that I don't have to deal with WB on my own. And promise that you will keep my secret so that your mother doesn't hate Steven. She loved him like a son, and I don't want to take that away from her."

As much as Eric wanted to tell his mother the truth, he knew that it wouldn't do anyone any good. "I'll go with you to the lawyer's office and I won't tell my mom. Your secret is safe with me," he promised solemnly. "You're safe with me." 


	3. Chapter 3

Eric didn't know much about raising a baby, but he took to caring for Eliza like he was made for it. He would start the day by helping Jackie get breakfast ready and then a trip to the park so that both of the girls could get some fresh air. They'd usually pack some cookies that Jackie made (Kitty's recipe she learned in high school) and stop by Red's shop for a snack. Sometimes they spent the afternoon with Fez at the shop or at his parents' house visiting with his mother. They had taken a few weekend trips to see the Kelso. Other than that, it was all about doctors appointments and feedings and diapers and naps and keeping little Eliza on her schedule.

Two months into it, Eric found that he started to look at Jackie and Eliza as his responsibility more and more. They weren't just the girls, they were his girls. He was proud to escort Jackie to church on Sunday mornings while the old ladies doted over the baby. He was happy to rock Eliza on the porch in the early evenings, sipping homemade lemonade while he and Jackie listened to old country songs. He was excited to go to his parents every Friday night for a family dinner, drinking beer with his father in the garage while Jackie gossiped with his mom at the kitchen table and Eliza napped in the bassinet nearby. It was the life he had always imagined, even if it was with a different girl and very different circumstances he would have expected.

And for her part, Jackie was happier than she had been in a long time. She still missed Steven in her own way, especially when Eliza smiled and she saw a twinkling of the man that she used to love more than anything. But with Eric, she felt a security she hadn't had in a long time. She wasn't walking around on egg shells, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She was able to focus on being a good mother and building a life for her daughter. He gave her a family that she needed, with Red and Kitty taking on the role of grandparents and Fez, Michael and Brooke as the aunts and uncles. She even had a cousin Betsy, a vivacious seven-year-old who watched over the infant like a proud older sister. It was a good life and she was grateful for it.

They hadn't really hit any major roadblocks until one Wednesday morning when Eric walks into the kitchen, Eliza sleeping against his shoulder. Jackie's back is to him and he can read the tension in her shoulders. He hears her low voice speaking to someone on the telephone, and when she finally turns around, he sees the tears streaked across her beautiful face. He shifts Eliza in his arms to take the receiver from a shaking Jackie. "Who is it?" he demands. There's a hesitation before he hears a voice he had been dreading since coming back to Point Place. "Hello, Donna."

"Hi, Eric," she repeated. Eric tucked the receiver beneath his chin so that he could have an arm free to wrap it around Jackie. "I had no idea that you were still staying with Jackie. Fez hadn't mentioned it or anything."

"Why would he? And why wouldn't I be here?" he asked. "I'm Eliza's godfather and Jackie is my friend. She needs good people around her right now. What she doesn't need is you calling up here. What do you want, Donna? And make it quick, she and I have already wasted too much time dealing with you."

His words were meant to sting and her silence indicated that they had met their intended purpose. "Um, I was just calling to, uh, apologize for everything and, you know, tell her that I felt bad for her loss," Donna stammered nervously. "And I just wanted her to, uh, know that I was going to be back in town for Fez's birthday dinner. I wanted to make, um, sure that it was going to like, you know, be okay and stuff."

His once-intelligent girlfriend sounded like a belligerent fool. "If Fez invited you..It's his birthday, his party. Just stay away from us."

Fear flashed in Jackie's eyes as Eric rubbed her arm soothingly. "Us?" Donna asked. He could hear the question she knew she couldn't ask in her voice. "Right, I'll stay clear of you guys. I should go..." Her voice trailed off and Eric couldn't help but feel a little bad. Life didn't have to end up like this. They didn't have to be here. "It was good talking to you, Eric."

"Goodbye, Donna," he murmured before hanging up the phone. "You okay?"

"Nothing I'm not used to by now," she said softly before waving her hand dismissively. "I won't let that ruin a beautiful day. It's not worth it. _She's_ not worth it." She hugged Eric once before moving out of his grasp. "WB called. He's playing nice, wants to see Eliza. You up for lunch at the country club?"

Their meeting all those months ago had established a pattern. Eliza was entitled to Steven's inheritance, money that Jackie had firmly refused to touch. Angie had been called in to manage his stores, and Jackie received a check every week that she deposited into Eliza's savings account. She didn't prevent WB from seeing his granddaughter. She wanted her daughter to know Steven's family. The only rule, at least for now, was that Eliza was also accompanied by Jackie and Eric during those visits. She wasn't comfortable trusting anyone other than the Foremans with her just yet.

"If that's what you would like to do, that's fine," he said agreeably before handing over Eliza. "I am going to go up and shower. I guess I should look more presentable. Besides, I wanted to stop by the high school and meeting with Principal Hughes. He said that he might have a job for me come fall. He is supposed to be in for some kind of meeting this morning and asked me to stop by."

Jackie did nothing to hide her excitement about Eric possibly prolonging his stay in Point Place. "That's amazing, Eric!" she grinned. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I didn't know where I stood...with the school or with you."

"We're both lucky to have you," she told him honestly before standing on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. Her stomach did that familiar flutter, the one she had gotten so used to over these weeks. It was still so soon after losing her husband, but she couldn't deny how Eric was starting to make her feel. There was something there, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It wasn't love but it was starting to feel a lot like it.


	4. Chapter 4

"Um, hi."

Eric felt Jackie's grip on his arm tighten at the sound of the familiar voice. He had asked for one simple thing, but in true Donna form, she hadn't obliged his request. There she was, standing before him, looking as pretty as she ever did. However, unlike when he was seventeen and she was the center of his universe, she wasn't all that appealing to him. She was just this person that he used to know, not the woman that he loved. She was also the person who had contributed to Jackie's heartbreak.

"Donna, please, not here."

Jackie's plea was soft but confident. Eric felt her fingertips slide down his wrist in search of his hand. He looked at her and smiled reassuringly. "We were actually going to just go call my parents to check on Eliza. We need to see how our little girl is doing, yeah?"

"Our?" It was a hollow question, completely rhetorical and not at all in need of an answer. "Fez, uh, he mentioned that you had her awhile back and that things were going good. I'm happy for you, Jackie."

It was the first time Donna had acknowledged the fact that her former best friend had a daughter. Jackie knew that she had three choices - she could run, she could be mean or she could be grown up. Life was too short to run away from the places she belonged. Losing Steven had taught her that. And she wasn't the bitch that she had been in high school. That Jackie died for good the day Eliza was born and someone became more important than she would ever be again. No, it was on her to be an adult now.

"Thank you," she said politely. "Eliza is amazing. Everyone says that she looks just like me, but I can definitely see her father in her. She has this certain smile that reminds me of Steven and she's pretty mellow. I think he would be proud of her."

"I know that we certainly are," Eric said, smiling at Jackie. He knew that maybe it was overkill, but he wanted to twist that knife in Donna's gut just a little more. It was immature, but Jackie deserved her redemption. Even if she was going to choose the high road, it didn't mean that he had to. "Really, we should go call my parents. It's almost time for Eliza to go to bed."

With that, Eric and Jackie walked off hand-in-hand. The party was going along okay enough so far, save for the one incident with Donna. Fez had gushed over the massive box of chocolate Eric had given to him as a gift and teared up when Jackie had presented him with a custom-made photo album chock-full of photos of Fez with the gang and newer pictures with him with Eliza. They had spent the first hour just talking to Kelso and Brooke, trading war stories about parenthood. Jackie seemed happier than she had in awhile, and the run-in with Donna had done nothing to deter that happiness.

"C'mon, Eric, let's dance."

He looked down at her big doe eyes, pleading up at him, and shook his head vehemently. "Uh, uh, no way, I don't dance," he protested.

"Not even for me?"

"Not even for you."

"Too bad," she declared loudly before yanking him by the wrist to the middle of the floor. Madonna blared on the loud speakers in the corner as Jackie bopped around him in a circle happily. Eric tried in vain to stand his crown for a moment, his arms over his chest and glaring at her. However, her joy soon proved infectious and he found himself soon getting into the music. When the uptempo song gave way to a ballad, Jackie wrapped herself in his arms and rested her head against her shoulder. "I'm having a really good time with you, Eric."

"Good, I'm glad you're enjoying the party."

"I don't just mean the party," she told him softly. "In general, you being here, I'm having a really good time. It's been awhile since I just had fun. Even the mundane stuff, it's better with you. I like having you there. It feels like we're a team. It's kind of like how it used to be with Steven but different. I don't know what I mean exactly but I know that I mean it."

Eric smiled down at her and chuckled a little. Her words were as confused as his head but the outcome was the same. "I'm happy, too, Jackie'" he assured her. "You and Eliza make it all okay. Whatever else is going on, I like that we're kind of like this family."

"We are a family, Eric," she insisted. That was very important to her. "Whatever happens in the future or even next, that doesn't change. I want you to be in Eliza's life for a very long time. I rely on. I need you. You have made so much of this easier."

"I don't do much," he said modestly.

"Are you kidding?" she laughed humorlessly. "You do everything. You make it all feel like it's going to be okay. No one else could have been that for me. Fez would have tried, Michael is so far away. Your parents are great, Eric, but they're not you. I would've never thought I'd feel this way..."

"Wait, what way?"

Jackie peered up at him. Her stomach was aflutter with butterflies, too nervous to make sense of what she wanted to say and what was actually in her head. "Eric..."

"Jackie, c'mon, just tell me."

She stopped dancing and looked up at him. "I am starting to have feelings for you."

"What kind of feelings?"

"Don't make me say it, Eric, please."

"You're not alone, Jackie," he reminded her. "This stuff, what's between you and me, I've never felt this way before. It's not like it was with Donna. It feels deeper, more real, not all caught up in being a teenager. It's been easier with you than anything I've ever felt before. I like that you need me. I like that I can see you needing me for a long time and that I already need you back. I like that Eliza smiles up at me like she recognizes me and reaches for my finger and wraps her tiny little hand around mine. I like that she feels like my daughter and that you consult me on all the big choices and that you make me feel like I'm actually her father."

"In all the ways that count, you are going to be her father. She will know about Steven and where she came from, but you're the man who is going to help me raise her, Eric. That's what I'm not-so-gracefully saying here. I want this life with you. I hope you want it with us."

"I love you, Jackie."

It comes out like a rush, a mere exhale that is the biggest revelation of his life. She laughs and grins and hugs him tightly, happy that he finally vocalized what they've been dancing around this entire conversation. There is no kiss or an overt acknowledgement that this is the moment they will transition from friend to something more. They just look at each other and know that it is different.

"I love you, too, Eric."


	5. Chapter 5

After Fez's party, after the grand declaration, life went back to its own version of normal for awhile. Eric and Jackie settled back into their pattern of raising Eliza. School started, and Eric became one of the school's most beloved faculty, while Jackie stayed at home with the baby. She was growing so quickly but right on schedule. Red continued to dote on her, and Eric mentioned more than once how relaxed his father seemed now that he had a "grandchild" of his own.

Exactly a year to the day of Hyde's death, the three of them make the trek out to the cemetery to visit his grave. Eliza rests easily on Eric's hip as they stand over the marble stone, rereading words that Jackie still can't believe she had to pick out in the first place. She still misses him some days, in those moments where Eliza looks most like him and she remembers that he should be here with his daughter. He had truly loved Jackie once and in the best way possible, something that she refuses to forget. Her daughter is all the reminder that she needs that they were something good once upon a time. In his own way, despite everything, her Steven had been a good man.

"We'll leave you," Eric tells her before taking Eliza just over the hill to the shade of a nearby apple tree.

Jackie watches Eric set her down in the cool grass and allows her to wobble around aimlessly on her own. She had just started walking a few weeks ago, a surprise to everyone in the middle of Kitty's flower garden after a family barbecue. Her hair has sprung out into these spiral curls that are Steven. Jackie could spend an hour carefully combing each one.

"Well, Steven, I can't believe it's been a year," she tells him. "I know that you see Eliza all the time, or at least I hope that you do. I hope that you're proud of her, of us. She's getting so big. I look at her sometimes and all I can see is you. I know you would have loved her more than anything. I remember how excited you were…"

A wayward tear makes its way down her cheek. This is the part that hurts to remember. "Anyhow, I know you would have been a good father. I mean, look at who you wanted for a godfather. That is the best gift you could have given to her, Steven. Eric has been a great father. If you can't be here, I think we both knew that he would be the next best thing," she confesses aloud. "I still wish that you could be here, though. Not for me but for her. She deserves to have her father. I hope you understand why I've done what I've done. We can't go back, and even if I could, I'm not sure that I would change anything."

She looks over at her daughter again, who is chasing after Eric in the garden. The two of them are so happy playing together, looking very much like the father and daughter that Jackie knows they are. Eliza is laughing so happily. She is a very happy child. Jackie loves that her daughter feels safe with this family. She can't imagine anything else for her. Eric stops short and swoops her up, raining kisses down on her cherub cheeks. Something warm bubbles in her stomach as she reaches down and twists the thin gold band on her right hand. She had taken it off her left hand a few months ago so that she could replace it with the platinum and diamond engagement ring Eric had given her.

"We're getting married in two weeks. That's part of why I wanted to come here. I needed for you to know that we're going to be okay. Eric loves us, Steven. Eliza has the family we always wanted for her," she tells him. "I know it's not what you expected, but it's how life turned out, huh? Eric is probably going to adopt her legally because I need him to have rights if something happens to me too. But you will always be her father, and I promise you that she will know that. You're going to be a legend in her mind, I just know it."

Eliza laughs then and calls out for her mother. "I guess I should be getting back to them but not before I tell you one last thing. I want you to know that I forgive you, Steven. I forgive you for everything. I'm working on forgiving Donna, but it's a lot easier to forgive someone when they're dead. As messed up as things got, I know that you didn't want to hurt me. You stepped up when I needed you. I won't forget that or the million other reasons why I know I don't need to hang onto the anger anymore. We were good together even when we weren't, and I know that you're the only one who could make sense of that. You were the first person to get me. I love you, Steven. I promise that I always will."

Jackie presses a kiss to her fingertips and then pressed them to the cool slab of stone. She whispers one final goodbye before running down the hill toward her family. She's leaving a lot behind in that cemetery, a lot of what ifs and a life that never was. However, as her sandals swish through the cool evening grass, she also knows that she is running toward something. She is running toward the life that she had been given, the one she thinks maybe she was meant to live. She is running toward her future. She is running toward forever.

**_Fin._**


End file.
